THE RAVENMASTER: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

An Amazon Book of the Month!

“What a terrific book…I learned so much about Ravens, and even things I didn’t know about the Tower. It’s like spending a long evening with a bottle of whisky as a wise Ravenmaster tells you everything you need to know.”—Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) on Twitter

“Skaife is a very good storyteller, and the book is full of the kind of anecdote that would make a great scene in a movie (like, for instance, the time one of the ravens orchestrated a daring escape from the Tower). A splendid and constantly surprising book.”—Booklist, starred review

Learn more about THE RAVENMASTER from NPR’s interview with author Christopher Skaife

“Swedish sensation Lundqvist’s (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN) twisting journey into the dark corners of the mind is true psychological horror. It will keep entranced and shocked readers guessing until the very end.”—Library Journal

According to Melissa Ann Singer, senior editor at Tor/Forge, horror “becomes increasingly popular during times of societal unease. When people are worried that the world is going to pieces around them, when they have lost faith in the idea that things will soon (or even someday) be better than they now are…. The struggle of the horror novel is often the struggle to restore order and normality to a chaotic world, community, or family.”

BIG NAMES AND NEW VOICES

As Michael Homler, an editor at St. Martin’s, explains, the horror genre is ever evolving. “You can have a story that relies on victims getting killed in very painful ways or stories that are more psychological or ones that deal with race and/or religion. They can be literary; they can be commercial. It’s not a one-fits-all genre ­anymore.”

One sign that horror is becoming more mainstream is the willingness of major publishers to take a chance on newer voices. Beginning in July, Rio Youers’s supernatural thriller HALCYON (St. Martin’s) is set on an island oasis in the middle of Lake Ontario, where paradise comes at a horrifying price.

Come September, Brendan Deneen takes the mundane fear of adult responsibility and melds it with the haunted house trope in the fast-paced, chillingly twisted THE CHRYSALIS (Tor). readmoreremove